Hi, I'm Joe.
Outside of Bilo, most of what I do comes back to a fascination with people: how they think, what makes them move, and why some thrive while others fall apart.
People
Lately that's meant a lot of behavioral books. I've read Annie Duke's Thinking in Bets and Chris Voss's Never Split the Difference, and I own Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow. It's waiting on the shelf until I find the willpower.
The world
It's probably also why I love travelling. I've been to more than 25 countries so far, and I'm a bit of a flags nerd and a GeoGuessr regular. I've also won more trivia nights than I can justify, thanks to the fantastically useless skill of knowing a little about everything.
Languages
Growing up Lebanese came with Arabic, French and English, and I've never stopped being fascinated by how languages come about. Wherever I go I try to pick up a bit of the local one, which is how a few months in Antalya left me with some Turkish. Russian is a someday, if only to read the literature in the original.
Music
Music has been there the whole time, and I listen to everything, in phases. Slash is the one who got me, at fourteen, and from Guns N' Roses it only got heavier until I found my love in progressive death metal, bands like Opeth and Gojira. Since then I've cycled through blues, jazz, alternative rock, nu metal, deep house, some techno and everything in between. As I write this, it's Daft Punk's "Veridis Quo". If there's a song you think I should hear, send it my way.
I started on piano as a kid, but at fifteen I watched Marcus Miller play "Power" and knew I wanted to play bass. At the guitar store, the guy told me that wasn't what I wanted, since bass is just there to fill the noise. Between me believing him and my dad not knowing any better, I went home with an acoustic guitar.
A few months later, deep in Davie504 videos, I watched that Marcus Miller clip again and that was it. I went back for the bass, and it's been my main instrument ever since. I've played gigs on keys and guitar and produced some of my own stuff too, but on most stages I'm the one "filling the noise."
Chess
My dad taught me as a kid. I came back to it as an adult, ended up running the chess club at AUB, and I'm 1800+ FIDE today, though these days it's mostly blitz on Lichess. I play the Jobava London with white. With black it's the Alekhine or the Benoni, or whatever I can improvise once I'm confused.
Moving
I was a hyperactive kid, so my parents threw me at every sport they could find. Swimming, football, taekwondo for years, fencing, tennis, basketball (which I was terrible at), and those are just the ones I remember. I was always extremely competitive, too. Some things don't change.
These days I mostly run, do bodyweight work when I can, and swim or hike whenever I get the chance. I'm fascinated by combat sports, grappling especially, and I follow UFC, boxing, BJJ and wrestling.
Come find me
I've been meaning to try bouldering for a while, so if you go, take me with you. I'm also always up for a game of chess, a spar or a jam, and if you're from somewhere I haven't been yet, I'd love to hear about it.